Saturday, 19 September 2009

Katie Price

I wish I didn't have to post this but I feel I have to. When I go into my office, the girls are all talking about Katie Price. What she's saying and doing actually seems to mean something to the general public. And is not that the point? Doesn't she make money from the general public? I'm not sure that this hasn't gone a little bit too far. This woman is - clearly - far from stable. But she has three children. Those three children one day are going to research their mum and dad. And it will be a whole lot more interesting than my Google search on my dad (I wish he was a neuro astronaut!) but the thing is, they aren't going to like their mother slagging off their dad and claiming they were raped to get press. And that's the thing - the police have had to drop Katie Price's rape claim as they have no substantial evidence. Hmmm. Is that because there is none? There is nothing I hate more than people making light of rape. Those that sling the accusation around make it harder for genuine victims to get justice, as if it is not hard enough. Katie Price dropping the accusation in the press and then hiding the accusation is terrible for victims. It's saying that she is either too scared to disclose it - just what the rapist wants; or that she's making it up; making it 10 times worse for genuine rape victims.

Em, the problem with your criticism is you have no way of knowing whether you are making a false accusation against Katie Price. You say, "There is nothing I hate more than people making light of rape." However, if you are wrong and she was raped then you are doing what you hate most.

As a rape survivor I don't find anything she has said about her alleged rape to disprove that allegation or to make light of rape.

Gorilla Bananas, stating what you suspect is nothing more than stating a bigotry which gets used repeatedly to deny non-stranger rapes.

Marcella, if you read the post again, I haven't actually accused her of lying about it - I don't know if she is or not. The point is that if she was raped, which - you're right - she may well have been, she is now refusing to say any more on the topic. I feel this is an insult to other rape victims who go through the hell of pursuing their attackers through a system that is already inept. If she wasn't raped - which may be a possibility - this is all the more detrimental to genuine victims.

This story is in the public domain, as is my blog. I have a right to comment on it.

I think personally, that it's very likely that she has been a victim of rape. I know that after my ordeal, which wasn't overly violent, and by someone I knew I went off the rails quite considerably.

I also developed a harder outer shell that I have been horribly reminded of watching Katie Price. I became overtly sexual, like I was trying to reclaim that power back.

I'm a lot older now, and I understand how difficult it can be to come to terms with something like this.

It's hard to think that nobody will believe you, that you are disgusting, and that people will think you asked for it (or made a mistake the night before).

And its harder still to actually talk about it.

I didnt go to the police either for fear of not being believed, and I was a normal 17 year old girl - what chance would Jordan have had with the reputation that she has?

You can sleep with 100 men and at the 101st say no thank you. If he then makes you - its still rape, and the statistics clearly show that its really difficult to get a conviction - even with dna evidence because the old Gorrilla Banana bunch are still going strong.

And if you were slagging off my boyfriend as a rapist, I may very well mention that I would never date a man like that after suffering rape myself.

Would you then get up on a soap box and demand I say who it was, and that I should now (15 years later) go to the police - otherwise Im a disgrace?

How absolutely disgusting. Neither Katie Price - or any other rape victim - has any obligation to anybody but herself. She is not responsible for making you feel more at ease with the justice system, with how hard other rape victims have it, whether or not her rapists (alleged or otherwise) rapes again.

How you think that she is making light of rape, when what she's actually doing is discussing *gasp* her own life is beyond me.

Ever thought that perhaps she's evaluated the odds of getting a conviction against ANY rapist - much less a rapists who raped her some time ago, with little or no forensic evidence, and presumably a well-known and rich celebrity, and come to the logical conclusion that any discussion that she had with the police had a very low chance of actually netting her any legal consequence for her rapist, and a fairly high chance of netting her a hell of a lot of further speculation, criticism, ridicule, and media attention?

Hi Anonymous (2). I take it you’ve been reading Barbara Ellen this weekend?!

If you’ll allow me to defend my “disgusting” self…

The fact that Katie Price’s rape has become a daily tea time gossip topic – perpetuated by the tabloid media and fuelled by her own PR – is not only making light of the topic in my opinion: it’s extremely dangerous for women and insulting to other rape victims. The difference between Ms Price and other rape victims – which you fail to recognise – is that Katie Price opened this dialogue herself by writing about it in a trashy magazine in order to advocate Alex Reid’s appearance in a porn film which feature scenes of violent rape. To young girls and victims of sexual assault, to see a media personality and supposed role model speaking out about her “horrendous” rape in the public domain, then flaunting her relationship with a violent porn actor using the same platforms is confusing to say the least.

I agree that some of her testimonies following the disclosure of the alleged rape are somewhat typical of a rape victim’s but only in that she is supposedly and/or conveniently too scared to report the crime. What makes her decidedly atypical is her behaviour in disclosing the story, baiting the media almost daily in order to profit from it, and then asking for the public to “forget about it” when the press attention was less than sympathetic. How on earth is this not damaging to other women who have gone through rape and find themselves unable to “just get over it and get on with [their] lives” and aren’t popular enough to make a few bucks on the side?

The pseudo feminist rants like yours aren’t feminist at all because they don’t accept Price as an individual and evaluate her behaviour objectively. Not all women are homogenous victims of rape and other sexual discriminations and sticking up for anyone who claims they’ve been raped isn’t a feminist argument; it’s actually sexist. Women get raped, yes, and the law is weighted out of their favour. But women also lie about rape as well. Who’s to say which is which in this case…I actually haven’t – but the supposedly typical “feminist” argument here has already made a decision on who’s the victim. Regardless of gender our laws still maintain the “innocent before guilty” idea. Don’t you think that immediately assuming Price is the victim of the situation – particularly with the lack of evidence, forensic or otherwise – is actually a little anti-feminist?

Finally, the difference between Price discussing *gasp* her own life and other people having a chat over a cuppa is this (and this is hypothetically imagining Price is a rape victim): not all other rape victims have the world press on tenterhooks for their next “revelation”. Not all other rape victims choose to talk about their rape as a means to endorse rape-based pornography. Not all other rape victims reveal purposefully tantalising details about their attacker to everyone other than the police, and maybe help stop the same thing happening to someone else.

Anonymous 1. While I disagree that those who criticise Price are any more "on their soapbox" than those that are on her side, I take your points and they were eloquently put.

I simply don't believe your story is what has happened to Katie Price - that's not a crime is it? Not all women are the same, neither are all rape victims - it's insulting to women and to rape victims to think they will all prescribe to the same coping strategies and assume because "I did, she must".

Might I also add, I have no control over other poster's comments and Gorilla Banana's is a view I do not share.

Fair point, I dont think any two rapes are the same - even if carried out by the same attacker. Every person is an individual, and everyone will deal with it different...

I suppose I am recognising in Katie Price something I can relate to, and that is perhaps making more likely to believe her and defend her (possibly because I wasn't able to defend myself).

I do find it hard to understand how she can now claim to have not realised how much of a media storm this would raise, and how adding that it was a celebrity rapist would not add fuel to the flames. In this celeb gossip hungry world we seem to have created for ourselves, she must have known how they would have pounced on that little titbit.

Maybe we have perhaps given her more credit than she is due, and she isn't as media savvy as they say.

She works with some very talented agencies to promote her and help her make money, perhaps it is the people behind the scenes that are, and this one slipped through. There seems to be a definite split in the media coverage she has received since her split with her husband and his management team.

She seems to be coming accross recently as a very insecure and childlike personality, constantly getting the bad egg angle taken in every story.

But that still begs the question, where the hell were her promotional team when she let this one out of the bag? And why did nobody say "are you sure about this? *this* is going to go happen if you say that!"

I do wonder whether there is any saving her in the publics opinion. But then, I also wonder if that wouldn't be a bad thing. Forgetting her recent bad press, I'm not sure if anyone should be looking up to a woman who has made her fortune by posing naked and generally acting like a drunken rugby player on a night out.

(And thats from someone who actually feels quite sorry for her, considering the way the press are treating her at the moment).

You're so right about the media and press around Katie Price - but I think at this stage they are having to "roll with the punches" - I actually think they are behaving reactively to the press each day a new headline comes out. Unfortunately for Katie Price, years of manipulating the press to her own advantage is now backfiring. This isn't something I have ever agreed with, but if that's your career, that's the way you make your money. Personally, I leave my work in the office and take my private life home. Some people make their private lives the office and the pay packet.

I am personally quite pleased that Katie Price has brought rape back on the agenda. Like Jade Goody brought cervical cancer back on the agenda. Maybe people will be more inclined now to make a statement or get themselves checked.